Construction is underway on Oklahoma’s second temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The groundbreaking of the Tulsa Oklahoma Temple, on Saturday, Aug. 22, was presided over by Elder Pedro X. Larreal. A General Authority Seventy, Elder Larreal is serving as a member of the Church’s United States Southwest Area presidency.
“I know this temple is going to help this community,” he said in his remarks at the groundbreaking. “It’s going to bless this state, helping people to feel the Holy Ghost in their life.”
Information and photos of the ceremony, which was livestreamed, were published Aug. 22 on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. State and city government leaders, local faith leaders, Latter-day Saints and community members attended the event.
Later that Saturday, a groundbreaking ceremony was also held for the Victoria British Columbia Temple. Elder James E. Evanson, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Canada Area presidency, presided over the ceremony.
Elder Larreal said that temple building strengthens communities, supports families, helps individuals build faith in Jesus Christ and prepares the earth for His Second Coming.
“This is the time to turn around and see Jesus Christ in our life, to look to Him, to follow Him.”
The temple is an “amazing resource to help us” amid trials, he said, a place to feel God’s love for each of His children.
Elder Larreal acknowledged that despite everyone’s imperfections, believers can be perfected through the Savior as they perform ordinances and keep covenants. “It’s through His Atonement we are going to be clean, we are going to feel His love, we are going to feel we can do it.”
Bearing witness that Jesus Christ lives, Elder Larreal said He is the only way to return to Heavenly Father. “He has opened His arms, ready to help us, to heal us, to listen to us.”
In his prayer dedicating the site, he asked that the temple “may serve as a light for everyone in this beautiful city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.” Elder Larreal added, “Please bless us so that Thy Spirit may be with us and with everyone involved in this project.”
Earlier in the ceremony, a multistake choir sang “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” (see “Hymns,” No. 72), bearing their witness of “the Almighty, the King of creation,” who “doth prosper thy way and defend thee.”
About the Tulsa temple and the Church in Oklahoma
The Tulsa temple will be a single-story building of approximately 29,600 square feet. It will be built on a 25.7-acre site at the northwest corner of 51st Street and 136th East Avenue in Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma.
The late President Russell M. Nelson announced this temple on Oct. 1, 2023, during the October 2023 general conference. It was one of 20 he announced at the conference.
The state’s first temple — the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple — was dedicated July 30, 2000, by President James E. Faust, then second counselor in the First Presidency. After extensive renovations, it was rededicated May 19, 2019, by President Henry B. Eyring, then second counselor in the First Presidency.
The first Latter-day Saint congregation in Oklahoma was created in 1921 in Gore, Oklahoma, about 60 miles southeast of Tulsa. The state’s first meetinghouse for the Church was built in Manard, Cherokee County, in 1892.
Oklahoma’s first stakes were established in 1960 — one in Tulsa on May 1, the other in Oklahoma City on Oct. 23. The Oklahoma Mission was created on June 10, 1970.
Tulsa is the second-most-populous city in Oklahoma, a state home to nearly 54,000 Church members in around 100 wards and branches.
